


A Christmas Surprise

by ella_rose88



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, One Night Stands, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-03 12:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8713768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ella_rose88/pseuds/ella_rose88
Summary: It’s been two months since Gwen slept with her boss and she finds herself pregnant to Arthur Pendragon, heir to Uther Pendragon’s renowned law firm, and who told her after their night together that they couldn’t be together. What will Gwen do? How will Arthur react?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Winter Knight's 2016 Challenge over at Live Journal. Many thanks to S.H for betaing this for me.

“Oh my _god_!” Gwen gasps as she looks down at the positive sign on the pregnancy test glaring back up at her. Shocked to her core, she stumbles to sit on the toilet seat, trying to digest the news that she’s carrying a baby. 

 

Granted she’s always wanted children, but she didn’t expect for it to happen this soon. She’d only graduated from uni nine months ago, and is only three months into her internship at one of the most prestigious law firms in the UK, Albion Law. 

 

“ _God!_ ” she whines in frustration and a little bit of anger at the thought of the firm she works at. She feels like it’s their fault for her current predicament, since Albion is the place where the father of her baby works. It’s the place where she met said person at the firm’s annual Christmas party where she, like many others, got absolutely drunk on the free booze. And it was the place where where her growing child was conceived: in - wait for it - the copy room. 

 

“Oh _fuck_!” She groans as she realises how cliche it was to hook up with someone in the copy room, like she’s a part of one of those rom-coms her best friend Freya has dragged her to so many times. Yet, she knows that’s not the worst part. 

 

No, the worst part is that the man she happened to have one night of amazing sex with (she grudgingly admits) is none other than her boss, Arthur Pendragon, son and heir to Uther Pendragon’s top-earning law firm. 

 

The man who - while admitting that he liked her after spending hours drinking, dancing, singing a few karaoke songs and well _fucking_ \- told her that nothing more could happen between them. The reason being that they were from two different worlds - him being a rich and privileged man set to inherit a huge fortune and law firm, and her being middle class girl from a small village with a mountain of debt due to her university fees, among other things. 

 

And the man she has successfully - if rather awkwardly - been avoiding for the past two months. 

 

“ _Shit!_ ” She swears once again as she realises that will have to change now. After all, while she declared to herself months ago that she would never be in the same room as Arthur Pendragon after he rejected her, it's different now. 

 

She’s carrying his child. 

 

 _But how the hell do I tell him?_ She thinks. Suddenly she feels like she’s going to throw up again. She quickly jumps off the toilet and raises the lid just in time before she vomits. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

_A week later…_

 

Gwen’s in a rush as she races towards her cubicle. Pregnancy is making her very tired and she missed her alarm, making her very late. Not only that, but she has yet to tell Arthur her news and for the past seven nights she’s stayed awake, contemplating how the hell she can tell her boss that she’s carrying his baby.

 

Suddenly there’s a thud as she knocks into someone’s shoulder and her handbag falls to the floor, sending its contents everywhere. 

 

“Ah sor--” Gwen starts to apologise when she looks up and finds Arthur before her.

 

“It’s all right, Guinevere,” he replies, before bending down to help collect her things. Gwen joins in too, trying to ignore how hearing him say her name makes her body tingle . She’s so distracted by trying to gather her things and get away that she doesn’t realise that Arthur has picked up her sonogram picture. 

 

After taking three more tests to confirm the first one , and a frantic call to her best friend Freya, Gwen had finally gathered the courage to go to her doctor. Once her blood test confirmed that she was indeed pregnant, she went for the scan. 

 

While Gwen knew that she was pregnant after four pregnancy tests, one blood test, not to mention the signs like her morning sickness and tender, fuller breasts, the moment that she saw her baby on the screen (though it looked more like bean or peanut than anything) it really sunk in. 

 

“Ah, Gwen…” Arthur calls to her, questioningly. Gwen looks up, having placed her wallet and keys back into her bag, and sees him holding the picture. 

 

_Shit! This definitely wasn’t on the list of ways to tell him that I’m pregnant with his baby._

 

Freaking out, Gwen tries to speak, but nothing comes out. This wasn’t how she wanted to tell him. She may have not have decided exactly how to tell him, but dropping her bag with the sonogram in it at work wasn’t it. 

 

“Is this what I think it is?” He tries again, determined to get her speaking. From his expression, he knows what he’s looking at, but he’s still waiting for her confirmation. 

 

Gwen nods, and is about to tell him that this isn’t the best place to be talking about this, when she feels her breakfast coming back up her throat. Covering her mouth, she quickly dashes to the women’s toilet, leaving a stunned Arthur in her wake. 

 

~*~*~*

 

An hour later, Gwen is back in her apartment, lying on her side on the sofa and watching something on TV, but she’s too worked up and embarrassed about what happened at work to have any idea what she’s watching. After vomiting in the toilets and popping some mints into her mouth to get rid of the taste, she’d found Arthur outside waiting for her. 

 

While she knew that she needed to talk to him about the situation, she wasn’t exactly keen to do so at work so she told him that she was going home because she was ‘sick’ and that he could come to her apartment later after work. 

 

At first he was hesitant, wanting to talk to her straight away, but she told him that she was too tired and nauseous and needed some time. Though he looked unhappy with that, he also agreed to give her some space . 

 

Suddenly she hears a knock at her door. With as much care as possible, she slowly gets up and makes her way to open the door.

 

“Arthur.” Surprised to see him, she starts to ask him why he’s there so early when he interrupts her. 

 

“I know we agreed to meet later, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything and we really need to talk,” he tells her sincerely, and realising that she can’t avoid the conversation any longer, Gwen lets him in. 

 

~*~*~*~

 

Mugs of hot tea in their hands, Arthur and Gwen sit opposite each other, both waiting for the other to say something.

 

It’s Arthur who finally breaks the silence. 

 

“So,” he begins. “How far along are you?” He takes a sip of his tea. 

 

“Two months,” Gwen responds. He nods his head.

 

“So it’s mine then?” 

 

“Of course it is,” Gwen tells him, incredulous. “I’ve not been with anyone for the past eight months, except you!”

 

Seeing how mad he’s made her with that question, he quickly apologises, telling her that he’s still digesting it all. 

 

“Me too,” she tells him, and seeing how bad he feels for making her feel mad, she accepts his apology. 

 

“So, have you decided what you’re going to do?” He asks her softly, not wanting to upset her with any assumptions or judgements. 

 

She places her mug on the coffee table between them, before informing him, “I’m keeping it, I know that.” Absent-mindedly she places her hand on her belly where their child is, before she continues. “And I want you to know that I don’t expect anything from you...” 

 

Arthur starts to talk when he hears this, shaking his head, but she finishes, “But you can be as involved as you want.” 

 

Placing his mug onto the table, Arthur moves to sit next to her, taking her hand in his and threading their fingers together. “Look, I know what I said that night about us not being together and I know that I hurt you,” he tells her. And he’s right; despite Gwen’s bravado she really was hurt when he said that they could never be. 

 

“But ever since that night I’ve constantly been thinking about you -- and not just because of the amazing sex.” He smirks slightly at that, and Gwen joins in too, because she’s been replaying what happened that night on loop in her head for the past two months. “But because I found myself falling for you,” Arthur admits, looking down. He looks scared at his confession, but also tentative, as though hoping that he hasn’t freaked her out since they haven’t known each other very long. 

 

“Me too,” Gwen reveals, and he looks up to see her smiling at him. 

 

“You’re like no other woman I’ve ever met. You’re kind, compassionate, smart, considerate, and you’re not afraid to speak your mind,” he tells her, his head slowly moving towards her. A different kind of tension fills the room. 

 

“Yes,” Gwen breathlessly replies, finding herself lost in looking at his luscious red lips. Wanting to kiss them. 

 

“And I’m in,” Arthur tells her. “I’m all in.” Their lips touch, and it’s not long before they’re kissing. Seconds pass, and Gwen feels the tip of Arthur’s tongue on her bottom lip, seeking permission to enter her mouth. She places her hand on his chest, removing her lips from his. She doesn’t want to pull away -- she could kiss him forever -- but she has to. 

 

“What about your father?” She asks him, remembering that night when he said that his father had certain expectations of him and saw him settling down with a particular kind of woman. 

 

“Guinevere, I know it will be hard, but we’re having a child and I know that we have something that’s very real here,” he tells her lovingly, before placing his hand on her face. Her hand instantly covers his. 

 

“Do you trust me?” He asks her, and Gwen nods her head. Happy tears fill her dark brown eyes and she embraces him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are very much encouraged and welcomed!


End file.
